All the Zimbabwean football administrators, clubs, sponsors and fans can do now is make sure the new season does not become a showcase for kindergarten material
For start, the PSL and Zifa need to bury the hatchet to ensure that all the decisions they make are consistent with efforts to develop the game, so that the image projected to the world becomes a flawless one that attracts more sponsors.
Soccer having now grown to become a global business, it remains an embarrassment that Highlanders, Dynamos and Caps United play in packed stadiums yet still fail to find reputable sponsors.
A good showcase of skill, administrative growth and supporter maturity would no doubt turn the tide and attract sponsors, even from outside the country.
If clubs work with the police and complement their efforts to turn the local game into a happy family event, the local game would appeal to new and influential audiences.
No reputable company would want to invest in a league where, before games, the home team’s bouncers attack a visiting team and disable its bench to eventually walk away with victory. Or where a game that is supposed to be broadcast fails to take place because one of the clubs did not pitch up in protest at a league decision. Or where a certain club’s supporters start attacking their opposition counterparts and turn a stadium into a battlefield just because their team lost.
All these should be key issues for administrators to nip in the bud, as it would not only cost the local game its sponsors, but also attract negative publicity that could taint Zimbabwe for ages.
The world already knows a bitter taste of our politics – we need to show that besides breaking one another’s fingers, arms and limbs for votes, we can also cheer and be merry around the world’s most beautiful game.
Habits always die hard. So to expect Dynamos not to beat up Hwange or any other opposition again, or Highlanders fans to accept a home loss to DeMbare, or visiting teams to suddenly stop scaling fences for fear of muthi could be too much to ask in a first “real” broadcast season. But when those happen, administrators should be seen to act decisively.
Soccer rules should be implemented and followed consistently and what applies to Chicken Inn, Hwange and How Mine must also apply to Dynamos, Highlanders and Motor Action. We should move away from a “sacred cows” world that saw Dynamos walk away with the league last season, even after evidence that their bouncers had incapacitated the Hwange bench before their home league win. The PSL had done its commendable part to order a replay, but the long-standing dispute between the league and Zifa put paid to any consistency, when their decision was overturned without strong reasons.
Clubs also need to educate their supporters on the need to accept any of the three possible results of a game – a win, draw or loss- and that none of these should not spark a war.
When all is said and done, the Supersport deal should come as a harbinger for more and better deals to come to our game, not a push factor that scares investors further away.
Post published in: Football